BBC journalists to strike for two days

Thousands of BBC journalists across the nation will hold two days of strike action next month over the threats of compulsory redundancy at the corporation.

TV, radio and online news will be disrupted on Friday 3 April and Thursday 9 April after nearly 800 members of the National Union of Journalists chapel at the BBC today voted in favour of industrial action in a national ballot.

More than 1,100 of the union's nearly 4,000 members at the corporation took part in the vote, 77% of whom voted in favour of a strike.

The most urgent threat of compulsory cuts is at the World Service's South Asian section, where up to 20 members are at risk, the union has said. Staff in Scotland are also understood to be under threat.

The NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: "Journalists at the South Asian services have been fighting a heroic struggle against the outsourcing of their jobs ... now they have the weight of thousands of NUJ members at the BBC behind them."

London-based journalists on the BBC Hindi, Nepali, and Urdu radio programmes and websites have already held a one-day strike over the proposed cuts.

Union representatives from across the BBC, meeting today, condemned the threat hanging over colleagues and called on management to enter "meaningful negotiations" and withdraw the threat of compulsory redundancies.

The union said it was opposed to compulsory redundancies in all parts of the BBC, adding that the strike would take place if further talks with BBC management "fail to resolve the issue".

It also said it was concerned by efforts by some World Service managers to "coerce" staff in the South Asia service in to accepting redundancy packages.

A spokesman for the World Service told MediaGuardian.co.uk the suggestion that staff were being coerced was "complete nonsense". "Staff are talking to us voluntarily, there is no coercion whatsoever," the spokesman said.

"No one is facing imminent compulsory redundancy at the BBC South Asian service. We are still in the process of seeking volunteers and finding opportunities for redeployment and we are optimistic that we will find a satisfactory outcome."

The NUJ said it intended to meet with representatives of the Bectu and Unite unions to co-ordinate a response.

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